Guiding the Future When Setsuna awoke the next morning, feeling unusually refreshed, it took her a few minutes to remember the conclusion she'd finally come to the previous day. When she did, however, she sobered quickly. She still had to find a way to save Ranma, manage to get him to like her in spite of his experiences with Nabiki, give him an honorable way out of his situation, prepare him for living with multiple women in spite of the horrific experience he would be coming out of, all without violating her oath to Serenity! Setsuna, her mind still focused on her challenge, gathered up her discarded clothing and took it to the bathroom. After dumping it in the bathroom, she turned on the western style shower and stepped into the warm spray. As she soaped her hands, her mind drifted to her fantasy from the previous night. She shook herself when she felt a sharp tug on her nipple and realized that she had begun caressing her full breasts without even realizing it. Fighting down a blush, she did her best to clear her mind, and completed her bathing with a calculated efficiency. Turning off the water, she pushed her hands down her body, sending the beads of waters sluicing from her fingers, then stepped from the shower to the bathmat and plucked a towel from where it hung. She dried herself quickly, forcing herself not to linger over certain areas, blushing again at the feel of cloth against her nipples, hardened in spite of her intentions. Even as she finally stepped through the portal back to the Time Gates, the blush still burned her cheeks. It had been a long time since she had enjoyed a genuine erotic fantasy. She knew better, of course, than to allow her sexual frustration to grow too strong, lest it make her an easy target for an enemies plans, so Setsuna was no stranger to masturbation. She never lacked for material to raise her excitement before a session, either, as the Time Gates made no allowance for modesty or privacy. She still occasionally enjoyed watching Cleopatra's methods of seduction, while the explorations that led to the authoring of the Kama-Sutra were a constant source of inspiration. As she settled herself once more into her perpetual guardianship, she began to tackle the challenge she had set herself, feeling excitement growing within her again as she once more had an active role to play. To be sure, she had not been bored while following Ranma's life, or she never would have spent the time on it that she had. Still, it was one thing to be a passive observer, and another entirely to take an active part in affairs once more. Focusing her will on the Time Gates, she summoned her staff to her hand. In response to her intention, the Garnet Orb on the staff glowed softly to life, and the view in the gates rippled. Much as she wanted to have Ranma for her own, she needed to first see whether she could spare him some of the pain. She had already determined that she would save his life; could she do yet more? --- Ranma grabbed the sheet of paper from his father, running off with it in delight. Seeing her son running while Genma chased after him, Nodoka smiled, and as Ranma neared her, she reached out and scooped him up. Her smile faded when she saw Genma's face turn pale as she plucked the paper from her son's hand. When she looked at it she understood why. She set her son down, very slowly, then walked to the mantel and took down the Saotome family honor sword from its resting place. Genma shivered where he stood, wanting to run but knowing that he still had a chance to convince her. She turned to stare at him, the katana held firmly in her two hands. Her eyes were burning as she glared at him. "You would force me to to raise this against my SON?" Ranma sat quietly, unsure what to make of the sudden tension between his parents. "But No-chan," protested Genma, sure he would be able to convince her. After all, she took honor very seriously. "No!" She snapped at him. "Never! How could you even think of such a thing. To make me...," her eyes filled suddenly with tears at the thought of having to stand by her son as he committed seppuku. Genma quailed at the sight of her tears, but there was steel in her eyes as she locked her gaze on him. "If you demand such a thing from me again," she said, with a quiver in her voice that betrayed the strength of her emotions, "I swear to you, I will commit seppuku myself before I accept such a pact!" Genma backed down. He never wanted to hurt her and the thought of her dead left him cold. Ranma grew up without the Neko-ken and many of the more hazardous of his adventures never happened. He still trained with his father but Nodoka prevented most of the worst of his excesses. She failed to prevent Jusenkyou, however. Still, she was there with them on that trip and Genma had no opportunity to attempt an escape. She immediately stopped Genma's plan to go on and train at the nearby Amazon village. When the guide said that he had never heard of anyone being cured, she saw clearly that if the Amazons had a cure, the guide would have known of it. Though the incident with Xian Pu never occurred, the meeting with the Tendo's went little different. Genma managed to ensure that Nodoka was not present at their first meeting and the curse of Jusenkyou brought rain as they approached the dojo. The course of events was nearly identical to the original timeline except that this time Ranma had never built up the extraordinary recuperative abilities nor the unusual strength that had resulted from Genma's exercises. Akane brought the heavy table down on Ranma's head, as before, but this time, his neck did not stand the strain. He died soon after. --- Setsuna shuddered as she realized that disgusting and stupid as Genma was, he had also been right about Nodoka's influence. With her influence, Ranma did not become nearly as powerful as he had the potential to be. Of course, he was mistaken in assuming that it would be her influence on Ranma that would make him weak, when in fact it was her influence on Genma himself that prevented the extreme training methods that had made Ranma so powerful on his original timeline. The Garnet Orb flared again as she explored a different possibility. --- Nodoka sighed in happiness as she watched Ranma practicing kendo forms in the backyard. It was too bad that Genma hadn't lived to see his son grow strong. "Ranma," she called out. "Yes, Mother," he responded, by her side in an instant. "Before you were born, son, your father made a pledge to unite his school of the art with that of his training partner, Tendo Soun. You were engaged to be married to one of his daughters." "What?" Master Happosai bounded in from the outside. "Oh, yes, I had forgotten all about that. Well, how about that boy? Tendo's daughters are quite the beauties. Lucky dog!" Ranma blushed lightly as he thought about what they might look like. He wasn't relying solely on imagination, of course. He was very familiar with the female form from his mother's training, and that of Happosai. --- Setsuna sighed as she saw Ranma meet the Tendo's for the first time. He was irritated at Akane's initial reaction, accurate though it was, and used Happosai's techniques to increase her libido while suppressing her anger. With no available means of release she had quickly disappeared to seek her own form of relief, leaving Kasumi and Nabiki to his attentions. She was somewhat surprised at the speed with which he seduced them. "He certainly knows how to please a women in this timeline," Setsuna commented to herself, rubbing the crotch of her Sailor Suit subconsciously, "but if he's already got a harem, why would he come with us? Besides, I don't think we need someone that manipulative. That could turn ugly in a hurry." Setsuna pictured Haruka and Michiru's reaction to some of the techniques that Ranma used and blanched. "Still... if I make sure he comes out with the right attitude towards us, it might be worthwhile to get him some training under Happosai..." She shook her head and the Garnet Orb flashed again. Setsuna examined countless possible futures for Ranma. While she could make minor alterations, it seemed that if she removed more than one of the major events in Ranma's life, he ended up failing to reach a power level that would make him able to comfortably keep up with the Senshi. She sighed unhappily. "I'm sorry, Ranma," she whispered, "but it seems I have little choice. I want you too much..." She sank to the ground, holding on to the Time Staff for support. "What will he think of me if he learns I could have helped him, could have prevented it all, and didn't, just so that he could be strong enough to love me? Will he hate me?" Tears trickled from her eyes as she considered the possibility that a Ranma with enough power to be her consort might be unable to love her once he knew what she was capable of. "No! I will not let it end like that," Setsuna said firmly, pushing herself back to her feet. Even as she rose, a thought came to her, an idea that sparked a rapid chain of thought. She needed him to not see her as similar to Nabiki. "I'll find a way," she said softly, eyes shining, "to make him mine without interfering in his life using the timestream. If I can show that I never interfered, he won't see the need to blame me for what went wrong, not as long as I'm helping him resolve it." Setsuna settled back into a chair that formed from the nothingness of the void that surrounded the gates. "Honor," she mused, and focused on the first of his fiancee's, Akane. Her eyes darkened as she watched again as Akane treated Ranma as a possession. Roaming over their first meeting again and again, Setsuna came to the disturbing realization that she had just outlawed for herself the best tool she had. The simplest way to make him willing to break the deal with the Tendo's was to remove the initial good feelings he had for Akane. She had heard some of his private comments later on and knew that Ranma occasionally felt that if he had only been male for their first meeting, it would have turned out far better, or if he had demonstrated the curse right away. In point of fact, while Setsuna could engineer this, the curse would still put off the older girls, causing them to push the engagement to Akane, and she would treat Ranma just as badly, seeing him as perverted boy. The only difference would be the absence of that first offer of friendship. She sighed. She'd promised not to interfere in that manner, even if she was the only one who knew of her promise or would know if she broke it. Ranma was at heart an honest person and so being honest with him would be important. Considering Akane again, she was reminded by the timeline reaching a scene with a large maze that the engagement was between the families and not Akane alone. She needed to neutralize Kasumi and Nabiki as well. An idea came to her and she briefly returned to her apartment, picking up a notepad and a pen before returning to the Time Gates. As she settled back in her seat, she uncapped the pen and flipped to the first sheet on the notepad. "Saotome Ranma," she wrote at the top. Two lines below she began her list of things to investigate. The first item on the list was "Saotome Clan Head." The next day, having completed her research into his fiancees, she turned her attention to his curses. She knew he was irritated by his Jusenkyou curse, but she felt sure that a large part of that was because of the pledge to his mother and much of the rest was more due to the reactions of people around him than to the curse itself. It was really a three part curse and Setsuna decided that neutralizing two parts would be enough to placate him. She turned her attention to the Neko-ken, though it made her ill to watch the training again, as the poor boy was wrapped in fish sausage and thrown to the cats. She steeled herself, focusing all of her formidable will, and watched stone faced-until he finally snapped. "I wish I didn't have to get rid of it," she said sadly a while later, watching as Neko-Ranma climbed into Akane's lap and lay there purring. "He's so cute like that, but I can't have our consort unable to stand the presence of the Queen's Advisors." Firming her resolve, she searched backwards through time. It took her several months but she finally traced back the technique to its first users. She watched, suppressing the churning in her stomach, as a young man was lowered into a pit of cats. Even as she ached to turn her eyes away, she noticed several crucial details. First, the boy seemed far more mature than Ranma had been and she realized that the technique had been developed in a time when people reached maturity at a much younger age. The youth of the victim was far less important than Genma had intimated. Unsurprising, given his poor understanding of it in general. More interesting to her was the framework the youth had been tied to before being lowered. She noticed also that he was wearing a protective facemask and a cup. The last critical detail was that when he finally snapped and gave his first inhuman yowl, he was immediately pulled from the pit. He was still well tied to the frame though she could see that small metal bars hanging down in front of his hands looked shorter and were cut at strange angles. It must be a means, she decided, for the monitoring monks to see if the candidate had formed the claws or not. She moved further back in time to where the boy was being given his initial instruction in the technique. To her surprise, one of the first steps was apparently a demonstration, as a Neko-ken master demonstrated the attack style and the claws, slicing through a wrought iron grating brought for the demonstration. The Neko-ken master, though using the techniques she recognized from Ranma, seemed to be in control and aware the entire time. She realized then that she had been mistaken in assuming that the student's achievement was the end of his training. Moving forward again, she watched as he was put to sleep with a pressure point. He was brought to a circular chamber and left to meditate. It took Setsuna a while to decipher the instructions he was given but once she did, she marveled at the utter simplicity of it. As she watched, once the boy achieved a state of meditation, a cat was released into the pit through a hidden door. The boy instantly lost his state of calmness and fled the cat, eventually succumbing to the fear. This continued for several days, until finally the boy managed to hold on long enough to consciously reach the Neko-ken. His fear seemed to leave him instantly and he lifted the cat to his lap, purring softly. Again this was not the end, for the process continued for many days, until he showed no fear when the cat entered, without needing to enter the cat state. Shortly thereafter he demonstrated the conscious use of the Neko-ken for the watching masters. Setsuna smiled happily. That would certainly prove an incentive for Ranma; conscious use of the Neko-ken and freedom from the fear. Several days later Setsuna finally sat down before the Gates of Time, the Time Staff gripped firmly in one hand. The Orb flashed once, as Setsuna looked to see how her plan would fare once she put it into action. What she discovered left her stunned and breathless, but smiling nonetheless. It meant the end of Crystal Tokyo and though her friends among the Senshi on that timeline would never have believed it of her, the end of her millenia long dream didn't bother her in the least. She had nearly forgotten, all those centuries ago, that the Time Gates could show the future but that she herself, being immune to paradox, was not considered within that future except where she consciously exerted her influence. For her powers could change the flow of time dramatically, and were the Time Gates to constantly show what the future could be given any potential action on her part, it would be impossible to gauge the effect of any particular event on the timeline amidst the wash of possible effects of her own actions. So when she had searched the futures, she had never seen this possibility, not until she exerted her will upon it. The end of Crystal Tokyo, an idea that once would have sent the Senshi of Time into a frenzy of defensive actions, merely brought a soft smile to her lips. --- Time passed, as it is wont to do, and Ranma was born. Unable to resist, Setsuna spent nearly as much time watching Ranma's life a second time as she did watching the unawakened Senshi. When the time came for her first intervention, she reentered the world and brought evidence of certain events and happenings before a judge, using all the skill for manipulation she possessed. She left the court with a wide smile. The time for the second step came. Setsuna entered a bar and made her way through the smoke and noise to where a man in a dirty white gi sat on a stool drinking sake from a bottle that sat on the bar beside him. She took a seat and when the bartender asked her pleasure, she ordered a strong drink. Genma glanced to the side at the woman who had just taken a seat a few paces down the bar. She looked wealthy; why was she drinking such strong liquor? A slow smile crept across his face as he scented money and he slipped from his seat to a seat beside the elegant green haired woman. "You look a bit down," he commented, congratulating himself on his smoothness. The woman eyed him and for a moment he thought her eyes were red, then he realized she must have been crying. Even better. "Wimps," she muttered. "Eh?" Genma looked at her askance for a moment before realizing that the comment wasn't addressed to him when she continued. "They're all wimps," she insisted, knocking back a slug of the hard liquor. "I'll never find a good husband for her." Genma's grin broadened. Perfect! "Oh? And what are you looking for in a boy, ma'am?" "Strong," she said, glancing at him again before taking another drink. "A boy with a real backbone, not like all these spineless wimps..." A few minutes later Setsuna exited the bar, a few thousand yen poorer, one signed contract richer. Things progressed normally for a time, until the expected arrival of Black Moon Family. Without Sailor Pluto's actions to firm the future, the timeline that resulted in the expulsion of the Black Moon Family from Crystal Tokyo became only one of many possibilities. Without that extra strength, the Setsuna of that time could not send Chibi-Usa back through time, nor did Wiseman's attempts to move through time succeed. When Chibi-Usa failed to appear on schedule, Setsuna became disturbed. She immediately delved into the time stream. She had grown used to knowing the future of the Senshi without having to watch it all the time, and as yet she had not made any changes that would cause Ranma to come in contact with or affect the Senshi. What she discovered relieved some fears and heightened others. With Crystal Tokyo no longer the firmest future, due to the absence of her continued efforts at strengthening that timeline, it lacked the solid connection with her time that was needed for the transport of Chibi-Usa, Usagi and Mamoru's daughter, to the past. Without that use of the Time Gates and the guidance of the Time Key Chibi-Usa carried, Wiseman was unable to transport the Black Moon Family back through time. Pleasant a realization as it might be to see that the future for the Senshi now included a long stretch of quiet time, it was also disturbing. The quiet time meant that the Senshi were allowed to grow rusty, their skills stagnating. Worse yet, since Chibi-Usa wasn't there, neither was Luna-P, who would have accompanied her. Without Luna-P's influence and in the absence of conflict, the girls would not receive their new transformation pens and communicators, nor achieve their star power transformation. The thought of the scouts facing the Witches Five and their Daimons without the experience of fighting the Black Moon Family, and without the resulting power increases disturbed Setsuna greatly. In studying this near future period, Setsuna came to a disturbing realizaiton. In the original timeline, when she had acted to ensure the existence of a single dominant future line, she had created a paradox where, because of the Time Gate's interaction with her self, those events which she had not fully examined, including the Witches Five incident, had created a ripple effect that eventually led to the future Setsuna warning her not to examine the future of those events. Now, with that future no longer the main line, Setsuna examined the upcoming timeline with more care. What she found shocked her to the core. To be sure, the guidance and instruction she gave the Outer Senshi brought them closer together, but to risk the Silence, to place her Garnet Orb within her own pure Heart Crystal and allow it to be stolen to form the Holy Grail and risk Pharaoh Ninety's entrance into the world, all so that Mistress Nine could be purged from Hotaru and reduce her age... Was it really necessary to allow all that simply to try and give Hotaru a better childhood? Setsuna could, to a degree, understand her own reasons for the act, but surely it was better to ensure that Hotaru had a bright future, than to craft for her a bright childhood that would lead to a lonely future? Finally the time came. The failed wedding was passed and her chance at Ranma was now or not at all, and Setsuna was beginning to realize that he had become far more important to their future than she had realized. Without his assistance, the Witches Five would be far harder for the Senshi to fight, lacking as they did the power and experience of fighting the Black Moon Family. More importantly, Chibi-Usa was not present, so her Heart Crystal could not be stolen and absorbed by Mistress Nine, thus giving Sailor Saturn a boost at a critical juncture and preventing Pharaoh Ninety from entering the world. Her own goal of freeing Ranma from his situation and capturing his heart had suddenly become far more than a mere personal task. It had become vital to the existence of the future, to the survival of her friends and herself. For the first time in millenia, Setsuna Meiou felt uncertainty.